Embracing the Local: How the Movement for Change and Social Justice Came to Be

This chapter depicts Majola’s movements between three differently funded and focused entities: in 2011, Majola returns to TAC from SJC to help revitalize its flagging influence locally and nationally. Shortly afterward, however, he accepts a job with the University of Cape Town (UCT) as liaison between academic researchers at UCT and the Gugulethu community. His account of the deciding factors in making this move offers a revealing picture of what the academic association offered him and what challenges it posed to his identity as an activist, both his self-perception and community members’ perceptions of him.